May 8 marks the 75th anniversary of VE Day, a day commemorating the conclusion of World War Two in Europe
Bringing the end to a six year conflict of unimaginable horror VE Day is a poignant celebration of the end of the bloodshed and those who lost their lives fighting against fascism
The Belfast News Letter is the oldest English language daily newspaper in the world. So not only did it extensively report Victory in Europe Day in 1945, but many wars and ceasefires before it.
It was founded in 1737 but most of the first year of the paper is lost. The earliest surviving editions, from 1738 and 1739, are full of war.
There are daily reports of the war between Russia and the infidels (the Turks), there is a civil war in Corsica, there are reports of violence across the Atlantic involving native Americans, and reports on the formal treaty to end of the Polish War of Succession, which had pulled in most of the major western European powers. There are endless reports on the looming War of Jenkins Ear (with Spain).
This was all 200 years before World War Two began, and in the meantime the News Letter had reported on the American revolutionary war, the French revolution, the Napoleonic wars, the Crimean and the Boer wars, leading up to the catastrophic Great War.
On this 75th anniversary of VE Day however there is so much for us all to be grateful for. The News Letter reported this week, and does again on Saturday (tomorrow), on survivors of the 1939-45 war who are a reminder of a generation that suffered much more than ours, and of the fact that there is much less global conflict now.
A letter writer, Harry Stephenson, born in the 1930s, fondly remembers the sense of spirit during the WW2, and the joy at its end.
We also report some good news in older survivors of Covid-19, including people aged in their 80s and 90s.
There is less good news too from the crisis, sadly. Ongoing deaths in care homes, council staff being furloughed, ongoing economic carnage, and a reported republican paramilitary funeral which is the latest such funeral to breach social distancing.
A pair of Belfast Blitz survivors have spoken of scenes of unbridled delight on the streets of Northern Ireland's capital as the official announcement came through in 1945: War in Europe is over.
As I stand in remembrance on this 75th anniversary of the allies' remarkable Victory in Europe Day, I will be remembering a generation or should I say generations, the majority of whom are sadly no longer with us.
At the age of 25 Omagh man Dave Mullin fought his way up through Italy with the North Irish Horse and is one of the last men standing from the famous Battle of Monte Cassino.
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